Explore "The Instructor" by Rudyard Kipling on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(CORPORALS)
At times when under cover I 'ave said, / To keep my spirits up an' raise a laugh, / 'Earin' 'im pass so busy over-'ead -- / Old Nickel Neck, 'oo isn't on the Staff -- / ‘_There's one above is greater than us all_.'
Before 'im I 'ave seen my Colonel fall, / An' watched 'im write my Captain's epitaph, / So that a long way off it could be read -- / He _'as_ the knack o' makin' men feel small -- / Old Whistle Tip, 'oo isn't on the Staff.
There is no sense in fleein' (I 'ave fled), / Better go on an' do the belly-crawl, / An' 'ope 'e'll 'it some other man instead / Of you 'e seems to 'unt so speshual -- / Fitzy van Spitz, 'oo isn't on the Staff.
An' thus in mem'ry's gratis biograph, / Now that the show is over, I recall / The peevish voice an' 'oary mushroom 'ead / Of 'im we owned was greater than us all, / 'Oo give instruction to the quick an' the dead -- / The Shudderin' Beggar not upon the Staff.